054- How to Speak at Grand Rounds and Spine Conference
11 Nov 2025 · 0 min
Podcast episode (Dec 12, 2016) in which Dr. Jeff Langmaid explains why and how chiropractors should attend and present at hospital Grand Rounds, Spine Conferences, and journal clubs. Covers practical logistics (where to find meetings, typical format and timing), the role of spine device representatives, relationship-building strategies, and the professional/CV benefits of speaking; includes sponsor mentions and calls-to-action for the Evidence Based Chiropractor community.
Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor providing you with elegant and efficient research based content to help your practice prosper and succeed. Now get ready for a variety of dynamic communication tools designed for immediate growth courtesy of your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.
Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid and this week we have an awesome episode and a bunch of information that I have been extremely excited to share. It is about Grand Rounds and speaking at your local Spine Conference, Hospital Grand Rounds and how you can further take what we talk about each and every week and implement it into positioning your practice. So speaking at Grand Rounds is exquisitely important. It ties together the research, it ties together the relationship building, the marketing and everything really ties together when you have the opportunity to speak at Spine Conference or Grand Rounds locally. The problem that I found is that most chiropractors have absolutely no idea where to start. And that is exactly what we're going to go through on today's episode. We're going to talk about why it's important to speak at Grand Rounds. We're going to talk about how to I'm going to talk about device reps, how they come into the equation and certainly also how it can be used to build your CV for greater opportunities down the road. But before we get started, I'll say a few words as we do each and every week about Rock Tape Rock Tape is proud to be a sponsor of the Evidence based Chiropractor. Rock Tape offers the world's best kinesiology tape and are proud to introduce completely redesigned Rocksauce and Rocksauce Chill powerful topical muscle and joint pain relief. Now available in 3 ounce roll ons and 32 ounce clinical pump tops. Give long lasting pain relief to your patients. Learn more@rocktape.com topicals again that is rocktape.com topicals so we are going to dive hot and heavy into everything that you need to know about Grand Rounds. As soon as we finish up this episode I have one big ask for you. If you are listening to this on itunes, go to itunes, give feedback, give us a star five star rating hopefully and let us know what you think of the podcast. It helps us get found and it also helps other chiropractors better their practice. If you're watching this on YouTube and watching the video version, give us a comment, click the like button, let us know you're out there. Or if you have any comments, I'm always available. Jeff the evidencebasedchiropractor.com so as we talked about today, it's all about grand rounds. So I speak about this because I've been fortunate to speak in hospital grand round settings. I've been fortunate to speak in kind of internal discussions in multidisciplinary groups. And it really came to the forefront last week for me. I'd received a bunch of emails from other chiropractors out there asking me about grand rounds and how to go about speaking at these elusive or seemingly elusive events. And last week I was fortunate. A lot of times on the podcast I don't speak of my day to day, but in this case I think it's imperative. So last week I was at a journal club, kind of a spin off of grand rounds. I was at a journal club for the practice that I'm with and it was a few neurosurgeons, a few of who you'd probably know by name, some orthopedic surgeons and a bunch of C level executives from our company. And to me, I had to take a step back for a moment because to think that a chiropractor would not only be welcomed and it was probably 10 of us there, this is the largest spine practice in the world that I'm very fortunate to practice with. And to think that a chiropractor would have equal be able to sit at the table, discuss topical items in a linear fashion kind of face to face with other people and in a peer capacity, in a colleague capacity, I think truly speaks to how far we've come as a profession. But a lot of chiropractors, I guess the challenge with that statement is that right now I am the exception, not the rule, and I want to give everybody that's listening the opportunity to have the the same opportunities for themselves as time goes on. So that's really the impetus for today's podcast and why I think it's extremely important to share this information with you. So when we take it from the top, why do you need to speak at grand rounds and why should you? Quite frankly, you're doing yourself a disservice not to. And here's why. There's no other time where you're going to get together. 10, 15, 20, 25. Numbers will vary depending upon your region or location. There's no other time you're going to get together together that many spine specific providers in one room looking at research and looking at clinical information so you can already see that's the opportunity. There's no better place to position your practice, to position yourself and to give value, to educate, to Talk about the research of what we do as conservative care providers than that community. So let's talk about the setup of grand rounds. And this is going to tie into how you can go about doing things as well. Grand rounds, Spine conference, Journal Club, different titles. They basically take place typically at every single hospital. So every hospital dedicates one day per week, per month or per quarter to have these grand rounds or spine conferences specifically for orthopedics or spine specific. And what it tends, the kind of the system is that it's typically sponsored by the spine device reps. So that's your striker, your mobi C. You know, all of the spinal device companies, they're the ones typically sponsoring it. And what occurs is that typically there's one presentation that's about 20 to 30 minutes long around regarding one research paper, because the MDs and the DOs there are going to get continuing education hours for the time there. Now, us as DCs, we're not gonna get that, but there's a ton of value outside of that. So there's typically one presentation that's 20 to 30 minutes, perhaps depending upon each individual hospital's gonna have a different setup, 20 to 30 minutes on a specific research paper. From there, what typically occurs that it opens up to question and answer. And then each doc will bring some films, some MRIs, whatever the case may be, CT scans that are challenging cases where they want insight into what other providers may do. So that's the setup. And usually it's at breakfast time is what I've seen. And that's where the device reps come in and they kind of sponsor it and there's breakfast there. So because it's continuing education, it's typ typically open to all providers in the community. So even chiropractors are open and welcome there. Now, the best way to go about figuring this out is nothing revolutionary. Picking up the phone. Call the local hospital near you and ask them just straight up the information line, when is your next spine conference grand round meeting? That's key. And what will happen is usually information desk will say, well, let me get you in touch with the executive assistant in the orthopedics department, et cetera. But they'll get you to the person who knows that. And really you'll find two answers at that point in time, both of which give you what you need. One may be we don't do that here. However, this teaching hospital down the street is where our doctors go, well, now you know where to go. Or secondarily they're gonna say, well, yes, we held it every third Thursday at 7:30am Whatever the case may be. So that's where you get the information to show up. Now showing up is a different story. I recommend showing up and just taking in the situation those first few times. So you're not gonna go in there guns blazing and be presenting the first time if nobody knows who you are. But it's all about that relationship building. When you can get in there, sit shoulder to shoulder, kind of pipe in your 2 cents and also get a feel for really who the movers and shakers are in your community. That's invaluable information that ties directly back in to your outreach and to your marketing. So learning who the providers are, learning what their treatment preferences are, seeing how respond to different cases is extremely important. Now typically at that journal club, at that grand rounds or spine conference, there'll be one executive assistant there as well. They're kind of checking people in, checking people out, specifically the doctors that are getting their continuing education credits. But usually that individual also is extremely important in setting the agenda and setting the schedule for presentations. So that's gonna be your key asset, the person that's checking people in, checking people out, ask them about who manage is the schedule and the agenda because very often what'll happen. I've presented at multiple spine conferences throughout my time. I've presented on multidisciplinary care, I've presented on mri, I've presented on treating patients conservatively post surgically. So there's a variety of tie ins that really where you can bring true value to those providers in that room. So that's really the key component and the driving factor by which you want to present because we have key knowledge that that's not gonna be necessarily presented by them but does tie into their practice. So don't hesitate if you have questions about that or some topics that you'd like to run by me. Again Jeff, the evidencebasedchiropractor.com I'm happy to answer any questions with that. So now you can start to see how the system can work. The spine device reps come in key because while their job is gonna be to build the relationship with the surgeons, they know everybody in town. So they are a good resource to find out who might be favorable to chiropractic, who leans more conservatively, who's more aggressive. Striking up conversations with the spine device representatives is very important because they're going to give you the under the covers, they're going to give you the download, they're going to give you the real deal on all of these positions. Especially if you're new to an area or new to going to spine conference or grand rounds, the spine device reps are going to be super important to getting the information that you need to make sure that you're focusing your efforts. The other key component to this is this builds your resume like crazy. So when you have the opportunity to then put on your resume, on your CV that you've spoken at multiple hospitals, that you've spoken at multiple multidisciplinary settings, to surgeons, to pain management, interventional spine doctors, as well as nurse practitioners and other chiropractors, this just elevates you and now you're able to deliver that message back to the primary care doctors that you're working with, the patients that you're providing care for each and every day. And there's nothing that's gonna really set you apart. You are gonna look like a superstar and a local leader extremely quickly when you have the opportunity to present what you do and present chiropractic in a different setting. So never hesitate to take the opportunity to showcase when you have done that hard work. So these are a couple reasons why Grand Rounds Spine Conference are extremely important. As you can imagine, all of this ties directly back in with what we talk about every week at the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Those three legs of the stool, sending those case notes, making sure that you're setting up those MD meetings and following up with research. So we just had a couple weeks ago we had a Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. We have a bunch of new members, a ton of activity in our member mastermind on Facebook. I'm super excited about where 2016 and certainly where 2017 is going with the Evidence Based Chiropractor. If you're looking to get more referrals into your practice, join the Evidence Based Chiropractor. There's nothing I can say more simple than that. The docs that we have are some of the best and brightest in the profession. They are people that are looking to make maximum impact in their communities, maximum impact with their practice. If you are one of those docs, check us out the evidencebasedchiropractor.com we will be back next week as we are each and every Monday morning with research and the time it takes to get to your office. I hope you have an awesome week in practice and I will talk to you soon.
We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosive practice development at the evidence basedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office. We look forward to providing you with more dynamic communication tools for immediate growth. Right here on the Evidence based Chiropractor.
Sam.
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